Rambling threads, thoughts about quilting, gardening, and life in general.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Where did June go? - A Re-cap - Part 1

One of the big events this summer was the whole family coming up to the Adirondacks for a visit. Since this is was the first visit for my nieces and nephew (all between the ages of 4 and 8). I thought it would be nice to make them all quilts for when they arrived.

I started on the quilts in March. My sister told me their favorite colors and I came up with what I hoped would be visually interesting quilts that would be pretty quick to piece.

The first one here (the pink one) was for my youngest niece - she is all about pink and princesses. I found a picture online of a quilt made of quarter log cabin blocks and decided to use that block. I could not decide on one single corner block to use for the whole quilt, so I went with 4. I used a variety of different sized strips for the rest of the block.

The second quilt (orange) is for my nephew. I found a picture online - I think the pattern is called 'Stones and Bricks' or something like that. As with the other quilt, I did not use a pattern I just figured how to create the blocks on my own. All the blocks in this quilt are made with 2 1/2 inch strips.

This quilt was the first one I finished. I got the top done in about 2 days at a quilt retreat in March. Of all the quilts, this one seems to have the biggest visual impact - it is very bright.

The third quilt (Blue) is for my eldest niece. She lives in Michigan and is a U of M fan. Having been born and raised in Ohio myself (the rivalry between Ohio and Michigan in college football is legendary) I could not bring myself to go with a purely Michigan theme. The result is the use of the U of M colors, but the night sky with stars is a nice neutral idea.

The blocks were constructed using Gwen Marston's Liberated Stars method (Gwen lives in Michigan so there is another Michigan connection for the quilt).